It was a beautiful day for an Appleseed (is it ever not?) at the Sacramento valley Shooting Center. We set up our equipment with help from some additional instructors who were attending an Instructor Boot Camp nearby and concurrently with our public shoot, so setup was a breeze. Shooters gradually rolled in as we approached our slated 9am start time. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that although 18 had pre-registered, we had 3 walk-ons and only one no-show, which meant 20 eager shooters were on the line! It was time to get to work.
It became quickly apparent that we had a sharp group that was engaged with the content and excited to learn. (That makes instructors very happy.) After our safety briefing and an opening Redcoat target, we bit into the meat of our instruction: sling use, prone steady hold factors, six steps to firing the shot, NPOA, talking targets, and IMC. The students asked plenty of insightful questions, which made group instruction time less of a lecture and more like a discussion. It was awesome.
Lunchtime arrived much too soon, so we got to tell the story of April 19th, 1775, otherwise known as The Three Strikes of the Match.
Saturday afternoon was spent working on seated and standing shooting, as well as transitions to seated and prone from standing. I was impressed by the dedication to safety that the shooters showed while learning the tricky transitions. We shot an AQT to give shooters a taste of what's to come tomorrow, and ended the day's range time with another Redcoat before telling the last part of the story from lunchtime, the happenings at Merriam's Corner.
Although Saturday had been overcast and threatening to rain all day, Sunday was warmer and sunny. It almost felt hot, especially being so early in the year! But no matter. Most of the shooters from the previous day had returned for more Project Appleseed, so that's what we were happy to provide.
Sunday morning, like most at Appleseed, is a time to solidify and fine-tune all the concepts that were thrown at you the previous day. We reviewed all of Saturday's content, with additional specific details thrown in. If anything, the group was even more engaged than they had been on Saturday, which led to some insightful discussion.
At lunch, we told several stories of individual people who played a significant part in our Revolution. In the afternoon we jumped into our AQT Grind, broken up by a Ball and Dummy partner drill which always seems to be helpful to the shooters.
We saw a few scores up in the 190s, and one agonizingly close 206, but none that matched the elusive 210 score of the Rifleman. Considering that many of our shooters had never been to an Appleseed before, I think that's quite good.
By the end of the day Sunday, we were down to only seven brave shooters and two instructors, as everyone else was tired, ill, or had other obligations. It was an excellent weekend of new and renewed friendships, perseverance, and appreciation for American heritage. Thank you all for being a part of it!
Instructors:
Andy (700x32)
Lauri (Rifles-n-Reeds)
Bob (PinBreaker)
Matt (just.a.guy)
I will be adding a link to my photos soon. Anyone else is welcome to add other photos they'd like to share!
Now that some time has passed, I'd like to hear from the shooters: what did you like about our event? What stuck with you? What can we do better next time?
I had a great time out there. It was nice just to get away from the office and concentrate on rifle marksmanship for most of a weekend. :snipersmi
You can see some photos I made (mostly on Sunday) here.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZtcHTeoZJPlpeQB6hOBLjX2kfZ6SQ8Iy?usp=sharing